The Gatekeeper
by kurama-sweethart
Summary: [AU] What is it, to be human? As Ed and Al encounter a boy who seems to have Al's body, he is thrown into a world of insecurity that forces him to ask the question: had he truly existed at all? [Cowrite with Requiem of Silence]


**The Gatekeeper  
****_By Requiem of Silence and Kurama Sweethart_  
****Summary:** As Alphonse is beginning to doubt his identity, a mysterious boy appears- who looks, speaks, and acts exactly like Al himself! Suddenly he is thrown into a world of insecurity that forces him to ask the question: had he truly existed at all?  
**Warnings: **Series spoilers, cursing, obvious dark themes, angst, possible shounen-ai or maybe even gasp incest. Rating to possibly go up in later chapters._

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The Gate was sealed, only opened by the urgency of passion and sacrifice. What could he possibly have to offer to the void? The flesh was not his, nor the time his life was now living on. At that moment he couldn't think of anything worth giving. The feeling made him feel worthless, lost and vulnerable. In the blackness, the Gate was the only thing he could see. Where could he go, if he could not go through? 

"_I can help you_," The voice was wispy and rough, and so faint that at first he passed it off as hallucination. But when it came again, stronger and more urgent, he knew it was real.

"_Who are you_?" He called into the abyss, listening to his voice echo around him. "_How… how did you get here_?"

"_I am the Gatekeeper_." Came the reply, after few moments of listening to his own rapid breathing. "_We can make a trade. You came from that world, didn't you_?"

He swallowed, and made a meek reply. "_Yes_."

"_Then bring me the body_." It boomed forcefully, causing him to wince. "_And I will allow you through_."

"_The body_?" He repeated, the image in his mind suddenly vivid and lifelike, as if he had seen it before. "_That's all_?"

"_Go. Bring it to me_."

With a nod he felt himself falling, with the light just within reach. He could see the boy clearly now, crouched around the array. Yes, that had to be the one. With a grunt of determination, he reached towards the figure. The body was motionless, and frail by appearance. It hadn't crossed his mind as to why the entity had wished for something as meaningless as this, but he didn't very much care. It was a price he was willing to pay for life outside this pitch dark. The numbness.

_'I'm leaving. Never see this again. Not coming back.'_

His mind thought in incomplete, disjointed sentiments. He lunged at the body. At the time it didn't seem to be odd that he had lunged when he had been falling all along, but he seized a limb of the body and warmth spread throughout his arm. It was a feeling that left him dazed and in somewhat of a stupor.

If there was a weight he hadn't felt it. Just the concentrated warmth in his right arm. He wanted to feel like that all over. He gathered the body and embraced it. He couldn't express the feeling that rippled and shed off the thing he carried.

For one moment he thought crazily, _'I don't want to give this to it_.' But that was left to fade in his mind as he ascended. He did nothing but carry what the Gatekeeper had wanted in his arms. Cradling it protectively like a child, although he hadn't known it. Looking up, the darkness began to get closer and the yellow glow became tinted more and more with black. He clutched the body, but the warmth seemed to disperse as he neared again the abyss.

_'No. I don't want it. I want this. Stay with this. I don't want to go back anymore- just leave me here. Leave me_.' He tried to push the body forward, to offer it to the Gate. '_Please, let me go back…_'

The sentence spasms that passed as his thoughts grew and swarmed madly, until the very air seemed to pulse with his mental cries. He realized after a moment that it was.

The Gatekeeper called in a disdainful voice, "_Away, Kein_." The dark snake-like beings that had been his companion wrapped around the boy and brought him into their darkness, leaving him alone and without that warmth that had been his little source of comfort.

He watched in a numb fascination as the thick, smoky hands smothered the child, not much unlike himself. His anguished cries for his brother echoed for a moment before ending in a strangled gasp.

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_To be continued._ Give Requiem love, too. It was her idea after all. I honestly have no clue why I even had to put it on my account. What did I do? I helped brainstorm a little and edited. Big whoopdie doo. Anyway. Review or I shall eat your soul :E 


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